London Irish head coach Brian Smith dismisses Saracens style of rugby saying his team have nothing to learn from them

London Irish head coach Brian Smith has lent Saturday's Premiership opening
match against Saracens at Twickenham a little extra piquancy by criticising
their style of play.

Let's get ready to rumble: Saracens skipper Steve Borthwick and London Irish captain Declan Danaher prepare to face each other at Twickenham on the opening day of the Premiership seasonPhoto: GETTY IMAGES

The 45-year-old Australian, who was England's attack coach between 2008 and 2011, dismissed Saracens’ “kick-and- chase” tactics and insisted that his side would continue to pursue their expansive, attacking tradition.

“We don’t want to be like Saracens in any way, shape or form,” he said. “We believe in open attacking football, the way we’ve done at this club in the past. In 2008 and 2009 we took a team to the Premiership final and the Heineken Cup semi-final, and we did it our way. The London Irish way.”

Saracens have finished ahead of London Irish in each of the last three Premiership seasons, including a maiden title in 2011, but Smith maintained that his team had nothing to learn from them, and instead would try to emulate teams such as Harlequins and Leinster.

“We’ve got no interest whatsoever in trying to replicate what Saracens have done,” he said. “We want to be like Harlequins. We want to get to the play-offs at the end of season and have the balls to play the way Harlequins did in the final. We want to play like Leinster, the best team in Europe, who play the best rugby in Europe. We want to be a rugby team. We want to be an attacking team. We’re not interested in the other way of playing.

“We’re expecting what you always get from Saracens. Take their red and black shirts off and put green and yellow shirts on and they may as well be an international team. They’ll play their kick-chase, and they’re a very efficient side - they’ll play the way Sarries always play.”

Lock George Skivington, who is poised to make his Premiership debut for London Irish this afternoon after moving from Leicester in the summer, was wary of Saracens’ physical threat, but said they were also capable of playing attractive rugby when the situation demanded.

“They haven’t got a reputation for being the most expansive team in the world, but they do play hard, they play physical,” said Skivington. “Their reputation may not be for scoring tries, but I have seen games where they’ve turned it on. So we’ll just attack them with what we want to do, defend like mad and we’ll see what sort of game they come with.”

Meanwhile, Smith said the prognosis on Joe Ansbro’s broken neck was still unclear. The Scotland international centre suffered the injury during a pre-season match against Munster and left hospital on Monday night. “In terms of where he’s going to be for us this season, it’s just too early to tell,” Smith said.